Book
Licensed
Unlicensed
Requires Authentication
Containing decolonisation
British imperialism and the politics of race in late colonial Burma
-
Matthew Bowser
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2025
About this book
This book examines British imperialism in late colonial Burma to study how imperialists attempted to protect their strategic and economic interests after decolonisation: they did so by supporting ethnonationalism. This process resembles the Cold War tactic of “containment,” and the book makes a crucial contribution to the study of modern imperialism by demonstrating the continuity between “containment’s” late- and “neo”-colonial manifestations. For Burma/Myanmar, it also explores the origin of the present-day military junta’s racial regime: it emphasizes the protection of the ethnoreligious majority from ethnic minority insurgency. The Rohingya people are currently suffering a genocide because of this racial regime. As the country endures civil war against the junta, this book highlights how ethnonationalists in the late colonial period first promoted this racial regime to seize power and prevent revolution, a process supported by British imperialists for their own ends.
Author / Editor information
Matthew Bowser is Assistant Professor of Asian History at Alabama A&M University
Topics
-
Download PDFPublicly Available
Front Matter
i -
Download PDFPublicly Available
Dedication
v -
Download PDFPublicly Available
Contents
vii -
Download PDFPublicly Available
List of figures
viii -
Download PDFPublicly Available
Acknowledgements
ix -
Download PDFPublicly Available
Note on terminology
xii -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Introduction
1 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
1 Partition and the rise of Burmese ethnonationalism (1929–1936)
22 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
2 The Myochit Party and the construction of a racial regime (1936–1938)
46 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
3 The pogrom of 1938 and its aftermath (1938–1939)
73 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
4 U Pu’s Ministry
91 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
5 The “Galon government”
114 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
6 The Long March, the Arakanese Civil War, and Burmese politics under Japanese occupation (1942–1945)
142 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
7 A “contained” decolonisation (1945–1948)
168 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Conclusion
202 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Bibliography
210 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Index
229
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
September 2, 2025
eBook ISBN:
9781526187956
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook ISBN:
9781526187956
Keywords for this book
Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League; Aung San; Ba Maw; Bamar-Buddhist; Cold War; colonialism; containment; critical race theory; decolonisation; discrimination; divide-and-rule politics; ethnic cleansing; ethnic identity; ethnonationalism; high politics; Indophobic; Islamophobia; junta; kala; Myanmar; Myochit; partition; passive revolution; pogrom; political racialization; race; racial regimes; revolution; Rohingya genocide; Sinyetha; Tatmadaw; U Pu; U Saw
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
